Former world junior champion Iliushechkina to switch allegiance from Canada to Russia

CP

MOSCOW - Russia's skating federation says that former world junior champion Lubov Iliushechkina is switching her allegiance to Canada.

Iliushechkina won the world junior pairs gold for Russia in 2009 and the senior Skate Canada World Cup event a year later, triumphing in Kingston, Ontario with her then-partner Nodari Maisuradze.

On that occasion, she finished ahead of Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch, who went on to win silver for Canada in the team event at February's Sochi Olympics.

The 22-year-old Iliushechkina has been frozen out of international competition since 2012, when her partnership with Maisuradze ended and the federation refused permission for her to switch allegiance to France.

The federation said its executive committee had given consent for the Canada switch, adding that Iliushechkina "will compete for Canada from this season."